Dr Barbara Tipple is one of the most accomplished jewellers living in Britain today. The recipient of seven prestigious industry awards alongside an honorary PhD and Freedom of the City of London, she believes that when it comes to making jewellery in Britain, the challenges are real, but the future is bright… I’ve always been…

As part of a drive to be environmentally responsible Brighton-based jewellery company Posh Totty Designs created a bespoke workshop app. Here, managing director Alice Rivers-Cripps explains the system and its benefits… Posh Totty Designs is a company which manufactures all of its jewellery in-house. In a move to keep up with strong demands and make…

Bedra Metals, a German specialist in unbranded jewellery and raw materials, has put the UK at the top of its target market list and is making its debut at IJL to meet jewellers. The 25-year-old company is based closed to Stuttgart, considered the home of jewellery manufacturing in Germany, and has run a successful subsidiary…

With diamond grading not only varying from lab to lab, but from person to person, levels of consistency are dangerously low. Stacey Hailes investigates the impact. If you happened to have been sat in the audience at the CMJ’s UK Jewellery Conference last month, you would have heard Stella Layton describe the over grading of…

Ellie Air Jewellery has signalled a move upmarket into increasingly fine jewellery with the creation of a new brand identity and web site. The company was founded in 2013 by Lauren Rowden (pictured above) as a contemporary fine jewellery brand, with each piece designed, made and finished by hand in her London workshop. Ellie Air…

The London Diamond Bourse and Assay Office Birmingham have signed a partnership agreement that provides a secure pipeline for diamonds from the London trading institution to the grading service at AnchorCert Gem Lab. AnchorCert Gem Lab, a division of Assay Office Birmingham is a diamond and gemstone grading laboratory. Qualified gemmologists use modern equipment to…

Assay Office Birmingham has compiled the hallmarking figures for Q2 2015, highlighting a 8.5% increase in the number of items assayed compared to the same period last year. In total 2,439,316 items were hallmarked with 14ct gold and sterling silver performing strongly. The results in full can be found below… UK hallmarking figures Q2 2015…

The July 2015 edition of Professional Jeweller is available to read online now, featuring a striking cover image from Italian fine jewellery brand Fope. This month’s issue includes a focus on the newly formed National Association of Jewellers and a guest column from owner and managing director of Fabulous, Jo Stroud, who discusses the…

Jessica Mead, a design assistant at Harriet Kelsall Bespoke Jewellery in Cambridge, has won the British Jewellers’ Association ‘I Do’ Fairtrade Gold ring design competition. The competition, which was launched in April by the BJA, The Fairtrade Foundation, Hockley Mint and Clark Diamonds, aims to increase the use of Fairtrade gold by encouraging designers to…

Theo Fennell will be hosting its annual awards for graduates on July 2 with prizes presented to the best students from the Jewellery & Metal MA Programme at London’s Royal College of Art. The awards are now in their eleventh year with winners chosen by Mr Fennell, Vogue magazine’s jewellery editor Carol Woolton and British…